Overhead sports are more likely to develop muscular discrepancy, even more when athletes start at a young age. They will be more likely to experience bad posture and continued errors in technique, which would put them more at risk for injuries. The best way to avoid any complication is prevention, which is why technique and exercise choice are paramount in resistance training and cannot be done randomly.

Has anyone not heard of the power of goal-setting? Yet, even in this age of goal oriented sports, business, science, etc. tennis coaches are typically not very good at incorporating goals into their daily activities. Too many coaches come to lessons on ‘wing-it’ mode. Oh sure, they can do fun activities, however, these don’t add up to effective improvement as they should. To harness the power of practice, goals are required. Goals increase the effectiveness of your annual plans, seasonal plans, monthly plans, weekly plans, lesson plans, right down to the drill or activity being done. You can almost use the term ‘goals’ and ‘plans’ synonymously. The old adage, “When you fail to plan, you plan to fail” is applicable here. A great plan is a series of goals that are SMART.

As a tennis player, most of us are always told to stretch. Okay, but stretch what? And why should I stretch? Also, what is stretching actually doing? As an athlete, we need reasons and goals attached to the activities we do, otherwise we are perhaps wasting time.

What happens if you can’t conjure up a Plan A strategy that gives you an obvious game plan edge over your opponent? Then you go to Plan B, which relies on a wearing-away process. We all have limited reserves of willpower, and we can only withstand stress and concentrate for so long. Plan B relies on the fact that you can win matches by exhausting your opponents mentally. Most people can concentrate pretty well for 30 minutes, but few can keep it up for hours. So even if you see no glaring weaknesses at first, 2 hours later, when your opponents’ minds have tired and their wills have dissipated, their games may leak like sieves.

According to USTA statistics, a tennis match can last between 45 minutes to 5 hours. Points duration typically lasts less than 10 seconds with a 20 to 25 seconds rest between each point. A best of 3 sets match requires 300 to 500 high-intensity efforts. Most of the time, tennis players do not have enough time to recover completely and restore after each match. So different strategies need to be put in place to help the player recover as fast as possible between games and tournaments, or after fitness and tennis practice, using hydrotherapies (such as cold, warm water), musculoskeletal aspects (like stretching, foam roller), dietary supplements (proteins). Sleep is also important to facilitate the anabolic process. Recovery is paramount to success. If done correctly, it can make a huge difference.

The rise of talented tennis players from all over Europe has been on display for some time now on the WTA Tour and the ATP tour. But never has it been more apparent than at the 2014 Australian Open. With the first major of the season now in the books it is very apparent that the ‘old’ days of the USA and Australia dominating the Grand Slams are long gone. Tennis is being dominated by the Europeans and the numbers are staggering.

Latest Videos

We thought we would share this Vasek Pospisil post match interview with Jim Courrier after his 2nd round win at the Australian Open. Unfortunately, Vasek had to pull out of the tournament, missing out on the opportunity to play Wawrinka in the 3rd round. Vasek, we wish you a quick recovery and a strong 2014.

***Clement Golliet is the newly appointed Director of ACE Fitness and is overseeing the fitness component of all ACE Tennis High Performance programs, is the Head Trainer at Toronto Tennis City and ACE Burlington, and offers private and group fitness sessions for ACE and OTA players as required. Clement’s mandate is to help build the new ACE Fitness brand and to offer leading edge training for tennis players in Ontario.

Clement has a Bachelors of Kinesiology from the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) and possesses various certifications in the areas of private training, spinning, T-Rx, performance, and reconditioning. A former high level basketball player and bodybuilder, Clement also has his French Federation Level 3 in kayaking. Before coming to Toronto to work with ACE Fitness, Clement was a personal trainer, fitness, strength, and conditioning coach at Sporting Club Sanctuaire in Montreal for tennis, basketball, and track running. Clement also has professional training in Clinical rehabilitation and experience as a sports teacher in Switzerland.

What is the ACE Fitness approach to physical conditioning? It is set on two basic principles: spine stability and hip mobility. To increase performance, we need to spare the spine from counterproductive stress and create good muscular activation and posture. Ultimately this will ensure the best biomechanics-friendly training.

The video is done by Prof. Stuart McGill, the world wide specialist in biomechanics. It debunks a few myths and shows how to utilize the concepts of “super stiffness” and “neutral spine” through a few simple exercises. And remember, core training and a healthy life are the fundamentals on which success can be built for any kind of sport! I trust you will enjoy the video!
Clément